Caesar neumann



UNTTED -sTATEs iATENTN 0ppm Specification. of Letters Patent No. 26,514,dated December 20, 1859.1 j

To all whom 'it 'may concern: j j

Be it known that I, CAESAR NEUMANN, of the city, county, and State ofNew York, have invented certain new and useful In1- provements inHoop-Skirts, some of the devices in which may be applicable `to otherpurposes; and I do hereby declare and ascertain my said improvements,referring to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure l, shows theskirt expanded; Fig. 2, the saine collapsed; Fig. 3, details.

My improvement is, first, for the purpose of readily collapsing hoopskirts at the will of the wearer, so as to contract the lsame whenentering stages or otherwise or seating ones self, and this can easilybe done at the will of the wearer, while the skirt will again readilyassume its expansion when released.

The construction is as follows: The skirt is made in any of the knownways that may be found convenient, but the springs which runhorizontally around the skirt, instead of being one continuous piece, asin ordinary skirts, are jointed, as seen in the drawing. The springs arelettered a a a2; the hinge joints, b. Abouttwdthirds of the spring, moreo1" less, is in one piece a. On each'end of this piece is jointed ashort piece a', and these two short pieces a are jointed to each end ofa short piece a2. The hinges that form these jointsare made so as toopen out like a rule joint, only to bring the pieces into the line ofthe circle, the ones connected with the long piece a being turned` so asto allow those ends to be bent inward and the others in a reversedirection, as clearly seen in the drawing. These hinges are made with aprojecting knuckle joint, having a straight surface on one side whenopen, the parts of the two halves of the hinge that are pivoted togetherbeing bent at right angles hoop to the other part, so as to make a shortleverf ,j .j age therewith and when open to rest against j, j each otherto revent the further movement` 1 of the ends o the hinges that areaiiixed to j the springs above named; `There is a `strip l of someelastic materialasuch as india rub#` j ber, stretched from one piece tothe other of` l 11 the shanks of this hinge, so as to hold them u i inline or the spring open atall timesexcept l j when a superiorpressurefolds up the hinge. j j Hinges thus constructed and applied tothe j Yhoops as herein set forth willcause the hoops j j to remain expandedunless` `pressed iiponj when they will collapse, bending the rear"` jend inward andthe front end outward,cans`` j ing that portion of thehoop tofold over, so as to reduce its size about one-third, moreor less.Morejoints maybeadded as desiredg.` j j When this skirt thus made is onthe wearer l she has `only to press her :hand `upon `the sides at orabout the pointof the rear hinges, j. j when they will at once foldinward, and thus reduce the size. j i j Y i It may be proper `to addthat the lower springs may be furnished with joints with#` j outsprings, which follow the movement of the upper ones, in which thesprings are placed within the range of the hands of the wearer. j i j 5Having thus described my improvements, what I claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is j Q i The spring joint or hin e arrangedand` constructedy as herein speci ed by which the j can be contractedand expanded sub` j stantially in the manner and for the purposes setforth. l

CAESAR NEUMANN. l

Witnesses: j j

AUSTIN F. PARK, l EzRA RIPLEY. i

